President Bush went to Canada today.

[Doreen Peri]

He must have been trying to escape his own regime.

When he got there, he said, "I support the Intelligence Reform bill."

LOL!

[jimboloco]

He said "the most right wing party in Canada is still to the left of the most left-wing party in America."

[Dave The Dov]

Some how I see that Son Of a Bush resembling this guy!!!!





_________________
causes of us recession

[hester_prynne]

He said that regardless of what anyone else thinks, if he thinks something is the right thing to do, he's gonna do it.

"Hark, I heer da cannons roor, is that da king approaching?"

pffffbleah

[Zlatko Waterman]

A link to articles comparing Nixon and Bush:


http://politicalwire.com/archives/2003/ ... ixons.html


--Z

[Glorious Amok]

and no tasers, no gas, no arrests. the protest remained peaceful even tho it was the largest this city has ever seen.

i didn't go, i had my last classes before final exams and i couldn't afford to miss the review. plus i had to help KT put on his annual X-mas photography show, although it saw a weak turn out, due to the majority of our market being at the protest.

but way to go canada! i'm so proud today.

[Dave The Dov]

Same here GM!!!! Now if only the same could be said for this country if you know what I mean!!!!
_________________
deep chunk strawberry cough plants

[stilltrucking]

president junior went to canada today
that is the good news
the bad news is that he is back
holiday cheer
he is making a list and checking it twice for who is naughty an nice

[Anonymous-one]

TheTyee.ca

UPDATE, DEC. 1:

Lawyers against the War went to court yesterday to lay an information against George W. Bush. An information is a sworn document which alleges that someone has committed an offence; it is one way to initiate a criminal proceeding. But there is little likelihood that Bush will face his accusers in Canada, as charges must first be approved by the Attorney-General, a remote possibility in this case.

Across the Atlantic, however, it’s a different matter. There, German lawyers for the New York based Center for Constitutional Rights, have laid a criminal complaint on behalf of four Iraqis who say they were tortured in Abu Ghraib prison. Germany’s war crimes laws, like Canada’s, embrace the universal jurisdiction principle. This means that war crimes charges may be laid against a citizen of any country for crimes committed anywhere in the world. -- Judith Ince

ORIGINAL STORY:

When George W. Bush visits Canada this week, he's sure to get an earful from demonstrators who see him more as a "war crimes president" than a "war president."

While activists prepare to put down their unwelcome mats, lawyers have been sharpening arguments to hold the president accountable for his actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. But amid the flurry of legal briefs flying across the country, the police, the immigration authorities, and the Minister of Justice seem to be unprepared for a brewing collision between Canadian law and political expediency.

Gail Davidson, a Vancouver lawyer and co-chair of Lawyers Against the War, says the prime minister should rescind his invitation to Bush, because the president is a "major war criminal." Her arguments are familiar. The extent of civilian deaths during the American conquest of Iraq—currently estimated at 100,000 —are chief among them.

Prominent jurists have echoed Davidson's claims. Most recently, Louise Arbour, the former war crimes prosecutor and current United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights, has called for an investigation into crimes against the Geneva Conventions during the recent American assault on Fallujah.

Tying Bush to torture violations

But Davidson says Bush should be brought to justice for "one of the crimes that's been very well-substantiated, and that's the crime of torture." In May the American government released its investigation of Abu Ghraib prison, concluding that it was the scene of "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses."

The author of the report, Major General Antonio Taguba catalogued twenty different types of "systematic and illegal abuse of detainees." Guards broke chemical lights and poured liquid phosphorous on prisoners, threatened them with loaded guns, doused them in frigid water, sodomized them with broom handles, forced them to masturbate while being photographed and videotaped, terrified them with dogs, and slapped, hit, and jumped on them.

International human rights conventions—most famously, the Geneva and United Nations Conventions--forbid this type of maltreatment of prisoners. Some of the individual perpetrators of these acts have been tried and are being punished for their crimes at Abu Ghraib. Others, like Lynndie England, are awaiting court martial.

Davidson says that it's not just the soldiers who are to blame for what happened at Abu Ghraib, but the president as well. As Commander in Chief of the U.S. forces, the Bush approved the interrogation 'techniques' devised by his Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. First practiced on detainees at Guantanamo, and later at Abu Ghraib, Davidson says the techniques "legally and morally constitute torture."

Bush has immunity here

As the sitting head of state, Bush enjoys diplomatic and state immunity in Canada. But the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act contains a number of sections that could be used to turn him back at the border. A person can be inadmissible "if they're alleged to have committed "war crimes, crimes against humanity, gross violations of human rights, aggression against another state. It reads like his resumé," Davidson laughs.

The Minister of Citizenship and Immigrations did not get back to The Tyee by press time to comment on Davidson's suggestion.

Vancouver lawyer Michael Byers has researched and written extensively about the prosecution of alleged war criminals who are also heads of state. Currently holding the Canada Research Chair at UBC, Byers has a cross appointment at the Liu Institute for Global Affairs and the political science department. This fall, he and a group of UBC graduate students investigated the legal implications for Canadian authorities if Rumsfeld came to Canada after he leaves office—and loses the immunity from prosecution that goes with it.

Their conclusions suggest Rumsfeld might want to reconsider any retirement travel north of the 49th parallel.

The exercise was grounded in known facts as well as Canadian and international law, even though the exercise was a hypothetical one, aimed at provoking "the Vancouver city police into thinking about what they would do," should Rumsfeld travel here in the future.

Students indict Rumsfeld

Byers had students assume they could call as witnesses the sources used in Chain of Command by Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer prize winning journalist who brought the My Lai massacre to light thirty years ago. They were then to consider whether the existing evidence is sufficiently strong to indict Rumsfeld under Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (CAHWCA).

The students concluded—and Byers agrees with them—that there are reasonable grounds to indict Rumsfeld. The CAHWCA "asserts universal jurisdiction, a principle which allows Canada to prosecute anyone—regardless of nationality," who steps foot on Canadian soil and has been alleged to have committed crimes itemized in the Act. This list of crimes reads like a paragraph out of Taguba's report on Abu Ghraib: imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, or any other inhumane act against a civilian population.

Rumsfeld was the architect of the policies that led to the mistreatment of prisoners, but he also ignored the vigorous objections of the International Committee of the Red Cross to them. The memo concludes, "In failing to stop the crimes of Abu Ghraib, Rumsfeld either chose not to exercise this authority, or was so willfully blind to their occurrence and warning signs as to suggest a dereliction of his responsibility as the authoritative superior." Such a breach is indictable under section 7 of the CAHWCA.

Martin's 'agenda for justice'

Paul Martin and his Minister of Justice, Irwin Cotler, have reconfirmed Canada's commitment to the prosecution of those who break international law. In his inaugural address to the United Nations on September 22, Martin said, "It is not enough simply to possess various legal instruments—they must be put into practice. Institutions responsible for human rights must reveal to the entire world those guilty of abuse, be they armed groups, communities or governments, and take the necessary measures to bring a halt to this abuse."

Late this summer, Cotler delivered a speech called "Law beyond borders: agenda for justice," to the Canadian Bar Association. In it, he was unequivocal about war crimes. "It is now incumbent upon Canada," he said, "to make the bringing of war criminals to justice, both domestically and internationally, the linchpin of building an international criminal justice system in the 21st century."

Cotler, the nation's Attorney General, is the man who would have to approve any prosecution of war criminals in Canada. In his speech, he pledged his commitment "break down the walls of indifference, to shatter the conspiracies of silence wherever they may be. As Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel put it, 'neutrality always means coming down on the side of the victimizer—never on the side of the victim.'"

Cotler's words, like Martin's, come down forcefully on the full application of the law, but Byers points out that there's always a dynamic tension between the law and politics. "Here we have some of the strongest rules, some of the absolute prohibitions—war crimes' rules—up against a very close relationship between a relatively weak country and the world's most powerful state. And it just doesn't get any better in terms of illuminating that tension," he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice, Patrick Charette, said "with reference to breaches of international law, we're not a safe haven," for war criminals. However, referring to Arbour's allegations that war crimes may have been committed by the Americans in Fallujah, Charette said he would be "unable to confirm or deny ongoing investigations" on such a "sensitive file." Moreover, he said, "Canada and the U.S. have different views, but the U.S. remains our closest ally and partner."

Vancouver police chief on notice

Byers notes that "it would certainly have major political implications if a former secretary of defense were arrested in Canada for crimes committed by the U.S. armed forces."

The United States has flexed its muscle when other countries have been inclined to prosecute its president and senior staff. Following the Rwanda genocide, Belgium changed its laws so that its courts could hear war crimes complaints no matter where the events occurred or the nationality of those involved. Charges were subsequently laid against George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and other senior members of the American government.

But in June 2003, Rumsfeld had had enough of Belgian justice. He gave the Belgians six months to change their laws, or else. He threatened to pull American funding for a new $352-million US new NATO headquarters in Brussells, and to boycott NATO meetings. The Belgians changed the law.

If Rumsfeld or Bush come to Canada once they're out of office—say to catch a hockey game at the 2010 Olympics—the pressure between law and politics will escalate: will police arrest these men who have had such serious and credible allegations of war crimes made against them?

At a legal conference in September, Byers raised this very practical issue with the city's police chief, Jamie Graham, and promised him a copy of his students' report. If Rumsfeld or Bush or any other target of substantiated war crimes allegations were to visit Vancouver, it would be the responsibility of the Vancouver Police Department to decide what to do next, because Criminal Code offences, including war crimes, fall under their jurisdiction. However, Byers said, "I haven't heard back from him surprisingly enough."

Graham's office confirmed he had received and read the memo, but was not available for comment by press time.

Judith Ince is a staff writer for The Tyee.

[stilltrucking]

who is going to fill their shoes
what is the score today
jimboloco got another load of body bags to bring home
and I wanted a heart that feels
suprising how many days the san antonio express news
don't have nothing on the front page about Iraq
thank you mr hearse for the happy news

yes sue the bastards sue them up to their eyeballs
"they create a wilderness and call it peace"
does his heart swell with pride at all those dead heroes he has created today

[Artguy]

Ya ....we fed him Beef.....

[jimboloco]

Bruce G's REPORT ON TRIP TO WESTERN CANADA

This report covers the period of November 25 - December 3 as I traveled to Manitoba and Saskatchewan provinces in Canada on a speaking tour. The trip was coordinated by the No War Coalition in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

As it turned out the timing for this long-planned trip could not have been better as George W. Bush made his first visit to Canada on November 30 and December 1 and dramatically increased the interest in the "missile defense" issue.

When I arrived in Winnipeg I almost did not make it out of the airport. Canadian customs discovered that I was carrying a load of videos and books and they diverted me off into a side room where they calculated the tax on the items and charged me $63. Then they asked if I'd ever been convicted of a crime, and when I said I had been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience they wanted to know how many times. They also asked me how many times I had been arrested in the last five years. Twice I replied. The immigration officer then told me to have a seat while he ran a background check on me. When he returned he told me they had a rule that if you have been convicted of a crime twice in the last five years you cannot enter Canada. Then, checking the long computer printout in his hand, he said "Oh, one of these was by the military and that does not count." He was referring to my last arrest at Vandenberg AFB in California. So they let me in.

I spent three days in Winnipeg speaking at several places including the University of Manitoba, a church Sunday school class and a public talk held at the planetarium that drew 200 people (covered by three local TV networks.) I also did a one hour live radio talk show on CBC. The show was aired throughout Manitoba and was also simultaneously broadcast on cable TV across the whole country. For the first half of the show I debated a university professor who wants Canada to join Bush's "missile defense" program. I spent my time talking about how the program was not about "defense," that Bush's up-coming visit to Canada was intended to use their good name to legitimize the program, and that Star Wars would be so expensive that Bush was out rounding up the posse to help pay for it. Of the nine people that called in, eight of them opposed Canada's participation.

Newspapers reported that recently elected Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin was saying that Bush's visit would not be dealing with "missile defense." Twenty months ago, while campaigning for the Liberal party leadership, Martin favored Canada's joining the program. But with recent national polls showing that a majority of citizens opposed Canadian involvement, Martin was trying to avoid the subject during the Bush visit. Instead Martin wanted to focus on the beef ban (due to a short bout of Mad Cow Disease) that the U.S. has imposed on Canada which is destroying their beef industry.

Before the trip I had been asked what I like to do during my free time. I replied that I'd like to see anything to do with Indian culture as I knew this region of Canada had rich roots in native traditions. While in Winnipeg my host coordinator Margie Warner and Derrick Black took me to the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg to meet with First Nations leaders and get a tour of the place. The Centre turned out to be a huge former railway station, built in 1905. The building had come vacant in the early 1990's and was purchased by Aboriginal leaders in 1992. Between 1993-1997 hundreds of people restored the magnificent rotunda area of the building and today it houses clinics, children's centers, healing programs, employment services, educational programs, art gallery, legal aid offices, and a restaurant that serves buffalo burgers. Wayne Helgason, the first president of the coordinating board, shared with us the joys and struggles of the long campaign to bring much needed human services to the large but neglected First Nations population in the area. The Aboriginal population, once relegated to barren reserves, has been moving into the urban areas and the Centre has proved to be a great service to the people. Just across the street, a spiritual roundhouse had also been constructed but I was not able to visit it that day.

One other great experience I had while in Winnipeg was a lunch meeting with key leaders of peace and religious groups, union leaders, and civic activists where we shared the latest on the space issue and they oriented me on key political issues in Canada. One item was the fear about "deep integration" with the U.S. A task force, consisting of government representatives from Canada, U.S.A. and Mexico, has been assigned to draft a plan to create a common border, common currency, military integration (including participation in Star Wars), and common policies on energy, law enforcement and refugees. Canadians are rightly concerned that the corporate takeover of the continent will mean a loss of sovereignty for their nation. The NAFTA-PLUS plan would lead to a loss of control over Canada's water supply and the opening up of their health care system to American insurance corporations.

My next stop was to Brandon, a farming community in western Manitoba where I was hosted by City Council member Errol Black. Errol interviewed me on local community access TV and then took me to the one commercial TV station in town where I was interviewed by the anchor person for the evening news. My speech in Brandon was organized by the District Labor Council and drew an intensely powerful and positive reaction from the audience. The question and answer period could have gone on forever as the assembled questioned why the American people allow the destruction of their democracy.

I was driven the long distance across the western prairie by veteran activist Darrell Rankin, a key leader in the Canadian Peace Alliance and the Winnipeg No War Coalition. The trip west ended up being about seven hours long as we headed through the cold and freshly snow covered land. But it was the big sky, from horizon to horizon across the flat prairie of barren wheat fields and burnt brown grasses, that filled me with soulful memories of my time living in South Dakota as a boy. As Darrell drove west we'd pick up the local paper and I'd read sections out loud about Bush's coming visit and he'd fill me in on the layers of background behind the Canadian political scene.

When we arrived in Saskatchewan I was taken to the city of Moose Jaw for a talk. First I did a community cable TV interview and then a group of us had dinner at the local truck stop restaurant owned by one of the peace group members. The evening talk at the local library was well attended and people left determined to stop Canada's participation in moving the arms race into space. After the talk we drove to Regina where I would be speaking the next day.

The next morning I woke up early to do a drive time live interview on CBC radio in Regina. It lasted about seven minutes and I was able to address all my key points. I was staying at a local Bed & Breakfast Inn and the man of the house phoned from his car on the way to work saying he liked that I reminded the audience that it was the U.S. that was the only country to have ever used weapons of mass destruction at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I told the audience that Bush's fear mongering around the "rogue states" was intended to frighten people into supporting the weaponization of space.

This was the day that Bush made his big speech in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He had declined to speak to Parliament in Ottawa, as is tradition, for fear that members of the body would heckle him. Instead he simply had a meeting with Prime Minister Martin in Ottawa the day before, and then attended a state dinner where the Canadians were delighted to note that he ate "Mesquite smoked Medallion of Alberta beef" -- the very meat he now bans from entering the U.S. (People are watching Bush closely to see if he develops any symptoms of Mad Cow Disease, but then again how would we be able to tell the difference?)

Bush's speech in Halifax was greeted by about 5,000 protestors (about 20,000 had protested him previously in Ottawa.) Activists in Halifax only had a matter of days to organize as Bush handlers had announced the surprise visit at the last minute. During the event Bush mentioned that he hoped Canada would join "missile defense" and this set off a chain reaction of news headlines and opposition party howls. You see, Bush was not supposed to bring "missile defense" up while in Canada. According to an editorial in The Globe and Mail "a cozy little pact had been reached in advance between Mr. Bush's people and Prime Minister Paul Martin's people. The President was not, repeat not, to utter the two deadly words missile defence in any of his public utterances. To do so would complicate things for Mr. Martin, who heads a minority government and has trouble in his own caucus regarding the missile defence scheme..."

At noon on that fateful day I was taken by local activist Robin Schlaht, to the University of Regina where an event was organized in the student "pit" at lunch time. The Raging Grannies sang some songs opposing Star Wars and then I briefly spoke to students and faculty that were watching the show. We also passed out leaflets advertising my talk at the university that evening. CBC TV covered the event as did the French Radio-Canada. That evening as we watched the news on national CBC we heard Global Network board member Tamara Lorincz interviewed from Halifax during the demonstration outside Bush's speaking event. Then, following the national news, CBC switched to local coverage and the news anchor announced that "We have two Americans in Canada today speaking about missile defense. Besides President Bush we have Bruce Gagnon speaking in opposition..." and they went on to interview me and show the footage of the Raging Grannies. I later told people that I deeply appreciated George W. Bush's decision to plan his trip to Canada to coincide with my speaking tour!

That evening my talk at the University of Regina was well attended, including many students, and formerly ended my week long tour. The next morning Darrell and I made the seven hour drive back east to Winnipeg. Upon arrival in Winnipeg I was taken by Margie Warner to the First Nations roundhouse that I had not been able to visit earlier in the week. Wayne Helgason had made arrangements for his cousin, Clarence Neepinac, a spiritual leader to give us a tour.

The beautiful building, built in the shape of a Teepee, has a star in the middle of the floor and is used for Pow-Wows and other sacred events. Outside is a sweat lodge which is used each week for spiritual cleansing and prayer.

On my last night in Winnipeg a pot luck supper was held to say goodbye to me. They gave me gifts, including a book called Indian Fall, that tells of the last days of freedom for the Aboriginal peoples on the Canadian prairie. Much to my delight Clarence Neepinac also showed up and gave me sweetgrass to take home in memory of visiting the First Nations roundhouse.

A couple things of note from the media that I'd like to share in closing. One journalist satirically wrote about her four reasons why it was great having Bush visit Canada. Her number one reason was "Because it's better to have Bush visit than the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division." Another editorial writer talked about the harsh treatment of Canadian society on U.S. TV during Bush's visit. She recalled watching the "O'Reilly Factor" show on the Fox network and quoted Bill O'Reilly as saying that the reason Canada did not do well in the Olympics was because of a "culture of entitlements" (meaning they have national health service.) Unlike Canadians, O'Reilly said Americans are committed to hard work and personal achievement.

Finally, the conservative National Post had various people of note comment on sections of Bush's speech in Halifax. In justifying the preemptive invasion of Iraq, Bush told Canadians that "If, 20 years from now, the Middle East is dominated by dictators and mullahs who build weapons of mass destruction and harbor terrorists, our children and our grandchildren will live in a nightmare world of danger." The newspaper had Jack Chambers, professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto analyze this statement. He said the following: "On the phrase 'nightmare world of danger' Bush is referring to our worst fantasies, the part that comes from the deepest id. He's trying to get our worst fears into the front of our minds. He had 'weapons of mass destruction' in the same paragraph, so it comes out like little needles that get right into your mind."

And so I think I'd sum up my experience in Canada this way. I was in a country that was not fooled by the fool on the hill. Bush did not succeed with his mental manipulations and in the end he put "missile defense" on the front page of every newspaper in the country. He invigorated the debate in Canada on national sovereignty and ensured that our friends in the peace movement there will have a more receptive national audience in the coming days. It was a great honor to be a small part of their resistance to Star Wars. Canada is the one country in the world today taking on the issue front and center. We all wish them the best.


Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space